May 4, 2012

A new twist on botulinum testing

DISK JOCKEY — Ulrich Schaff holds a prototype SpinDx, a portable
instrument for running assays for toxins and other substances. The
SpinDx botulinum assay outperformed the current “gold standard”
botulinum test, mouse bioassays, and has the potential to become a
powerful biodefense diagnostic tool. (Photo by Randy Wong) View large image.

“The mouse bioassay is primitive, but remains the gold standard due
to its sensitivity,” says Greg Sommer (8621). “Our SpinDx botulinum
assay vastly outperformed the mouse bioassay in head-to-head tests, and
requires absolutely no animal testing. Plus there are a lot of
advantages in terms of cost and speed. Our test can be run in under 30
minutes, compared with days for the mouse bioassay.”

The project received National Institutes of Health funding to adapt
the lab-on-a-disk platform for toxin diagnostics. While botulism is
quite rare — only about 145 cases are reported in the United States each
year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention —
the lethality of the toxin makes it an attractive candidate for
bioterrorism.

“A very small amount in the food system could harm a lot of
people,” says Greg. “This isn’t an assay with a large commercial
market, therefore it’s not something that industry is going to take on.
So this is where we, as a national lab, step in and fill the gap.”

There are several reports of botulinum having been weaponized by
terrorists and nations at war, most notably by terrorists in Japan in
the early 1990s as well as by Iraq during the Persian Gulf War. While
the toxin has not yet been successfully deployed as a bioweapon, those
working in national security are trying to get ahead of the problem
with vaccines and therapeutics, as well as diagnosis and prevention.
Additionally, botulinum is being used more frequently for therapeutic
and cosmetic uses (Botox), creating greater risk for misuse.

Remarkably simple platform

The goal, says Greg, is to create a handheld, point-of-care device
that can be used in the field by emergency responders. The SpinDx
platform has several advantages for such a scenario. For one, it’s
remarkably simple.

The device works just like a CD player, using a spinning disk to manipulate a sample.

“You just mix your sample and spin, says Ulrich. The device is very reproducible and reliable.”

Another advantage is the ability to process samples in virtually any
form, which is especially important when testing for a food-borne
toxin. If you prepare your sample correctly, this device can read it,‖
says Chung-Yan.

In a recent demonstration, he was challenged to test what was
basically a continental breakfast — milk, half-and-half, yogurt, honey,
hot chocolate mix, cinnamon, canned meat, peanut butter, and a
raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing. “Milk and honey are difficult
because they are viscous and opaque, plus honey has bee proteins that
can interfere,” he adds. “Foods with a lot of fat — again, milk as well
as peanut butter — are also traditionally hard to work with.”

Through a lot of trial and error, Chung-Yan made improvements to the
assay that enabled it to handle thick, viscous food substances and
increased its sensitivity under these challenging conditions.
Collaborators at the USDA provided high-quality botulinum antibodies
that bind with high affinity, enabling the higher sensitivity.

That ability to process so many food substances makes the device
relevant for food safety testing. About 15 percent of botulism cases are
food borne, usually related to home canning. In 2007, 14 people in
seven states contracted botulism from hot dog chili sauce due to faulty
manufacturing equipment at a food plant in Augusta, Ga.

“Food processing plants are looking for something that can be
integrated into their assembly lines,” says Greg. “Our device will be
suitable because it’s fast, inexpensive, and simple to operate.”

Tip of the iceberg

But botulism is just the tip of the iceberg. With proof-of-concept
on the botulinum toxin, the team is turning its attention toward other
toxins as well as pathogens, bacteria, and viruses. While the focus is
on biodefense, Greg also sees the SpinDx device becoming a regular
medical diagnostic tool.

“Ideally, this device would have a routine clinical application so
medical personnel use it regularly,” he says. “The disks are consumable
and assay-specific, so in an emergency you would just switch to the
right toxin disk.”

The team is currently developing a deployable prototype to run the
assays. The goal is a fully integrated, automated device ready for
field testing.

“We’ve done most of our testing in a benchtop setting, where we spin
the sample on the disk and then read it out on a microscope,” he says.
“The next step is to automate those processes and get the system into
users’ hands. This technology has a lot of potential for so many
applications.”
--Patti Koning

Pedal to the metal: Sandian helps UNM students reach the finish line

SANDIA ENGINEER Imane Khalil and project manager Garrett Kuehner
work together on the University of New Mexico’s 2012 Formula SAE race
car. Imane teaches engine theory to the student team led by Kuehner.
This year’s car is a few weeks away from completion. It will compete in
June against cars built by undergraduate student teams from across the
country.View large image.

Imane, manager of Structural and Thermal Analysis Dept. 6233, is an
adjunct professor in the UNM mechanical engineering department. Her
class, High Performance Engine, is one of several that comprise the
optional FSAE capstone design course for seniors. Students who opt for
FSAE work as a team to build, from the ground up, a race car that
competes against entries from universities worldwide.

“My class covers the theory of the engine and how to improve the
engine’s performance,” Imane says. “It brings together everything they
have learned in four years.”

FSAE, started in 1979, is a student design competition for
university undergraduates organized by SAE International, formerly the
Society of Automotive Engineers. Its concept is that a fictional
manufacturing company has contracted a design team to develop a small
Formula-style race car to be evaluated for its potential as a
production item. The target customer is the non-professional weekend
autocross racer.

Each student team designs, builds, and tests a prototype based on a
set of rules. The car then competes in one or more of seven
international competitions in static and dynamic tests. Static tests are
design, cost, and business presentation. Dynamic tests are
acceleration, skid pad, autocross, endurance, and fuel economy.

UNM has entered cars in North American FSAE competitions since 1997.
In 1998, the program came under the wing of Professor John Russell, a
retired Air Force colonel, who made the project an accredited course.

Its cars generally finish in the top 25 percent of all US and world
divisions, despite having an operating budget in the lower 50 percent
of teams. The UNM team has finished as high as 14th in the world and
10th in the US, and last year was eighth in design and ninth in
autocross, its best showing ever in those events.

This year’s competition will be in Lincoln, Neb., June 20-23. “We’re
getting better and better each year,” Kuehner says. “It’s an
evolutionary design process. Each team builds on the previous year.”

Hands-on engineering

The program is set up for about 25 students who work on the race car
over three semesters, or 18 months. Design begins in the spring and
runs through summer. Manufacturing starts in the fall and wraps up the
following spring, allowing for some overlap as the incoming team begins
design work for its car. The team then prepares for the summer
competition.

The team divides into groups that work on different parts of the
car: chassis, suspension and steering, brakes, engine, drivetrain, and
aerodynamics. Each group uses complex software during the design phase,
and their input goes into creating a detailed CAD model of the car.

“This is the flagship project in the mechanical engineering program
where students get hands-on design and manufacturing experience in a
professional engineering setting,” Kuehner says. “The program is run
similarly to a small business, mimicking the type of work found in
industry. Considering team members are also balancing other courses,
work, and personal lives, there are many sleepless nights spent working
on the project.”

The estimated annual budget for the program is $55,000. About
$18,000 goes to raw materials, as 95 percent of the vehicle is made at
UNM. Sandia is a key sponsor, donating $10,000 a year through Community
Involvement. “Sandia is doing a lot to help this program excel in terms
of money and intellectual resources,” Imane says. “We really want to
help the science and engineering at UNM.”

“We buy an engine and by using computer modeling and simulations, we
come up with improvements that optimize the engine for speed,” says
Imane, who has been teaching the class six years ago.

Program director Russell says Imane’s contribution has been
invaluable. “Much of the reason for our continued success can be
attributed to Dr. Khalil’s dedicated support,” he says.

Giving back

Imane says she is proud of the students, most of whom continue on to
graduate school. Some have been hired by auto heavyweights like Ford,
Chrysler, Toyota, and Honda.

“I love teaching and academia,” Imane says. “It’s my way of giving
back to the community. I want to help UNM and help students excel at
what they’re doing.”

Imane was born and raised in Lebanon during that country’s violent
civil war. She moved to the US in 1989 and studied mechanical
engineering at the University of California at San Diego, where she
earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a doctorate in fluid and gas
dynamics. She was hired at Sandia eight years ago.

Imane worked four years in California building airplane engines, a job that qualified her to teach in the FSAE program at UNM.

“It’s fun to work with the students,” she says. “I love science so
teaching this class is not work to me. I leave the classroom feeling
grateful to have this opportunity. It is very fulfilling.”

Imane says she feels strongly about mentoring young people because she had a mentor in her life.

“My graduate advisor, professor David Miller, gave me invaluable
guidance and support which I attribute to the successes I’ve had,”
Imane says. “In addition to teaching, I have had many opportunities for
mentoring. The students are very receptive to the help a practicing
engineer can provide. I have seen some of my students, with a little
push, go much farther in their careers than they expected.”
--Nancy Salem

A former DARPA robot developed at Sandia is now serving an educational purpose at New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU).

About a decade ago, Sandia developed the Multi-function Utility
Logistics Equipment Vehicle, or MULE, robot. The project was sponsored
by DARPA — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — Lockheed
Martin, and Sandia to help troops haul heavy equipment across a variety
of terrains, and could negotiate one-meter steps. But once the MULE
had served its purpose, it was parked in a garage at Sandia’s Robotic
Vehicle Range and left alone until the summers.

For the past two summers, students and Gil Gallegos, chair of the
computer and mathematical sciences department at Highlands, worked with
the MULE as part of DOE’s FAST, or faculty/student program, which pairs
students with professors for research projects.

Gallegos and NMHU students added hardware and software to expand the MULE’s capabilities.

“Every summer, we’d dust this off, and students would get very
excited to work on it for the summer,” says Jake Deuel (6532), manager
of the Robotic and Security Systems group. “We realized we weren’t
doing anything with it, and found a way to donate it to NMHU for two
years.”

Gallegos says the goal of having the MULE at the university’s lab is
to help generate thesis topics for graduate students in the computer
science department and for undergraduate senior capstone projects. He
adds that it will be a valuable recruiting tool to encourage students to
pursue STEM careers.

“We’re very appreciative of Sandia allowing us to use this. It
really does improve our program, and it’s very exciting to have the
robot in the lab and to have students excited about it,” Gallegos says.

Miguel Maestas earned his bachelor’s degree in computational
engineering from NMHU two years ago and is now in his second semester as
a master’s student. He says the MULE will be instrumental to his
thesis work, and is anxious to start working with it. He will first run
diagnostics to ensure all electronic parts are intact, and has plans
to integrate a 3-D image capture function. Eventually, this would help
with object and possibly facial recognition to enhance the robot’s
navigational capabilities.

Currently, four undergraduate and three graduate students are signed
up to work with the MULE, but Gallegos expects that having the robot
on campus will continue to generate interest. Other projects in the
works include software development to communicate with motors that
control the MULE’s six wheels and shoulders and installing
microcontrollers for individual joints, shoulders, and wheels.

“I’m hopeful that this will help recruit other students into the
computer sciences department. It’s very exciting to be able to work with
the MULE and to know that it has been used to help develop other
projects that are state-of-the-art,” Maestas says.
--Stephanie Hobby

Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525.